Kimberly-Clark Give Pre-Layoff Notices

What could be worse that getting a pink slip in your in-box when you come into work? Worse than knowing that you are going to be without a job in as little as 10 days time. How about not knowing if you are going to lose your job or not? The waiting to find out if you are going to lose your job could be almost unbearable.

Well, that is the fate of most of the employees of the Kimberly-Clark Corp. plant located in the city of Everett. The majority of the 750 employees in those facilities were given not pink slips, but warning notices instead. These notices are letting the employees know that they may in fact get a pink slip in the next 60 days.

So, on one hand this does allow employees who think that they are likely to be let go some extra time to send out those resumes while still receiving a pay check, it also creates a sense of foreboding that could leave some holding out hope instead of taking swift action.

Of course, the Kimberly-Clark Corp. is still trying to sell the plant, and it does not anticipate the fact that they are getting ready to be rid of a significant portion of the facilities staff will affect that sale. “We’re continuing the process to try to sell the plant, but the due diligence is still ongoing,” Kimberly-Clark Corp spokesman Bob Brand told a local reporter Monday.

Currently, the sale of the property looks as though it will happen in the near future. Kimberly-Clark Corp is currently in a round of exclusive talks with Atlas Holdings LLC about the sale of the paper and pulp mills that are expected to soon lay off its employees. While the sales of the plant look likely there is nothing definite at the time.

“There’s no guarantee there,” Mr. Brand said to a local reporter. “We have to continue to plan for closing the plant.” While the company was quick to point out that negotiations were still in their information gathering stage, the company has previously referred to Atlas Holdings LLC as a viable buyer who may be willing to continue operating the plant in its current capacity. For those of you not familiar with the company Atlas is a company that specializes in turning around distressed businesses and making them profitable again. Whether this means they will want to bring in their own people or re-hire existing staff, should they buy the facilities, is yet to be seen.

Basically, what the company did was give their employees the heads up as soon as possible. Since the company is required by state lay to warning their staff of any impending layoffs it did so as soon as possible.
Not that the sales will make much of a difference fore employees of the pulp mill. Kimberly-Clark has already announced its intentions to closing down the last of its pulp operations, including the Everett plant, in January of this year.